The Joker would have won, Batman would have been hated by the public for letting two boats full of citizens explode and Harvey Dent dying, and the "chaos" the Joker talked about would have been full blown.
Would have made for a better movie, the fact the Joker had to use his own detonator made no sense the Joker would have had a failsafe in place.
Just a guess on my part but part of his MO seemed to be having an audience for his anarchy, specifically Batman.
Earlier, he could just as easily have blown up Dent and Rachel. However, he had to taunt Batman and Gordon by making them race against the clock to save them.
He could have rigged the boats to blow but, he wanted Batman to know personally that he (Batman) had failed to stop the inevitable. Not knowing when Batman would show up exactly, or what his plan would be when he did show up meant he had to allow himself some flexibility.
(A counter argument would be... well, why not a deadman switch? In other words, if Batman did get to him before he could pull the trigger and rendered him unconscious, then the switch would go off.)
Good thinking.
shareI kind of feel like Nolan/Ledger Joker isn't quite like the comic version (who I'm certain would've made SURE both boats eventually blow up).
This film's Joker seemed like he honestly had a point to make. Moreover, he seemed honestly disappointed when neither boat blew the other up. A failsafe would deny him the satisfaction of knowing they did so.
This film's Joker seemed like he honestly had a point to make. Moreover, he seemed honestly disappointed when neither boat blew the other up. A failsafe would deny him the satisfaction of knowing they did so.
Yeah I had this feeling as well. He really seemed to meticulously choose his course of action to a logical end (or at least specific point, message).
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That would go against what the Joker tried to prove: everybody has a dark side. He wanted someone else to take the step into insanity and pull the switch. Just having them blow up by themselves would defeat the purpose.
shareThis. His game was turning people on each other.
shareAlso this.
A lot of people think maybe the detonators blow up their own boats, and this does seem Joker's style
But Paperboy identifies the critical reason why Joker WOULDN'T do that - he wants the triggerman to survive.
Joker's hoping the civilized people will blow up the other boat, thereby proving their own selfish inner selves. It only makes sense that he'd want them to live with that knowledge thereafter.
Joker might not care as much with the convicts, but forcing them to commit mass murder to survive would certainly cement their own dark view of themselves.
That's why it's so satisfying that BOTH ferries refused to pull the trigger - Joker was proven wrong twice over, very publicly to his frustration and embarrassment.
Sadly, he did succeed with his backup plan - to turn Dent into a villain.
My reply from last year was deleted for some reason, so I'll repeat.
Joker threatened that both boats would be blown if no one did anything. In the final scene, he pulls out a detonator and says, "We always have to do things ourselves". That was his backup plan.